“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.”
--Louisa May Alcott

Sunday, November 1, 2015

What I'm Reading Right Now, or When All Your Library Holds Come in at Once

When it rains, it pours, but at least it's pouring books. Here's what I'm reading and listening to for the next few weeks:

Reckless: My Life as a Pretender by Chrissie Hynde (audio)
I started listening to this one after our own KMS mentioned it in the first blog post. Wow. Whenever you think that rich, famous people have it made and have happy lives, listen to a memoir. Hynde calls herself dumb so many times. Even when she got a good grade in a high school class, she says, "There's an outside chance I was actually good at calligraphy, but I doubt it."

As she matured and as things started to come together for her musically, she began to sound more confident. I'm almost finished with this one, and it's been really interesting. The trivia she throws in is great--like that "brass in pocket" is a bit of slang she heard when someone needed to borrow money.

I've only read one Wilkie Collins book--The Woman in White--but this biography whets my appetite for more. Collins, who had Charles Dickens as mentor (after a fashion), kept two households with two women (and married neither of them) and was a feminist before feminism was cool.

Stacy Schiff, I'm going to forgive you for Cleopatra*. This retelling of the Salem Witch Trials is quite interesting.

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore (audio)Y'all know how I love a celebrity memoir. The only thing that would make this better is if I could read something that goes with it, like when I read Laura Ingalls/Mary Ingalls/Nellie Olesen's memoirs all in a row. (Summation: Mary was a real bitch. And Laura, really, who divorces Bruce Boxleitner? Come on. Only Nellie's book made me like her more.)

Career of Evil is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series. I like mysteries, and so often the prose is cringeworthy even when the story is good. But this series isn't like that, and I'm enjoying this one as much as the first two.

5 comments:

I am in a severe reading slump right now, but seeing your list has inspired me. Here's something I think would be an interesting read (Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and the sequels, are some of my very favorite books):

I am keeping my grudge for Stacy Schiff but I want to know all your fun facts especially when they involve dogs practicing witchcraft!Does Adriana read her book because I would love for that to be my first audio book. I'm still thinking about how much I enjoyed hearing her speak at Salon 615.I loved the first Robert Galbraith book and have the second one on my to-read list. Now, I'm getting further behind. Every time (not often) I hear the names Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, I think of my favorite movie--You've Got Mail. After proofreading, that seems like a very random odd statement. Oh well! I'll be on the lookout for your Goodreads review of that one.